Conventionally, there has been an image pickup device which is configured in such a manner that an optical image is formed on a charge coupled device for converting light into an electric signal by using a lens, wherein a device for adjusting the amount of transmitted light is provided on an optical path corresponding to each minimum block of the charge coupled device. The image pickup device has a control function of reducing the amount of light received by each photoelectric conversion unit of the charge coupled device into 1/α (α is an integer of 1 or greater) so that the amount of received light can fall within a particular dynamic range of the charge coupled device and has a function of amplifying an output corresponding to each minimum block by α times at the rear end of the charge coupled device (see, for example, Japanese Patent Laid-open Application No. H7-023283).
However, according to the aforementioned prior art, the device for adjusting the amount of transmitted light needs to be installed on the optical path corresponding to each minimum block of the charge coupled device.